Bill Compensating Eugenics Victims Has Bipartisan Support | Eastern North Carolina Now

   Publisher's note: The author of this fine report is Barry Smith, who is a contributor for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

Surviving victims would receive $50,000 tax free

    RALEIGH     Compensation could soon be on its way to victims of North Carolina's involuntary sterilization program that was in operation in the state for decades.

    Under the bill, which was introduced Wednesday during the opening day of the General Assembly's short session, victims of the state's involuntary eugenics program would each receive $50,000.

    "These folks were injured by the actions of the state of North Carolina," said Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam, R-Wake, one of the bill's sponsors. "It was lawful under a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, but the U.S. Supreme Court was wrong."

    "Because we as a state perpetrated this heinous act on our own citizens, we have a moral responsibility to acknowledge the wrong that was done to our own citizens," said Rep. Earline Parmon, D-Forsyth, another bill sponsor.

    House Speaker Thom Tillis, R-Mecklenburg, and Rep. Larry Womble, D-Forsyth, have also signed on as sponsors of the bill.

    The state, for more than four decades, sterilized an estimated 7,600 North Carolinians who were poor, sick, undereducated or disabled. The practice stopped in the mid-1970s.

    A task force established by Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue earlier this year recommended that living victims be given $50,000.

    Stam said that about 150 people have already been identified as involuntary participants in the sterilization program. There could be others, he said.

    Victims of the program would have until Dec. 31, 2015, to submit a claim that they were involved in the program. The N.C. Industrial Commission would determine if a claimant was indeed a victim and therefore eligible for the program.

    The bill provides $10 million to be used to for compensating sterilization victims. Nearly $1 million more would be spent administering the program. The bulk of that money would go to a new Office of Justice for Sterilization Victims within the Department of Administration.

    The new office would be charged with helping people filing claims collect the paperwork necessary to determine if they are eligible for compensation.

    Eligible recipients would be victims who were alive as of March 1, 2010. Survivors of victims who were deceased before then would not be eligible for compensation.

    Parmon acknowledged that there needed to be some sort of cutoff in compensation eligibility. She said that providing compensation for survivors of deceased victims could be cumbersome and could delay getting living victims their compensation.

    Stam said that, under the bill, the compensation would not be subject to state income taxes. He added that the way that the bill is structured, with the compensation being awarded because of an injury caused by the state, should make the money exempt from federal taxes also.

    The bill is expected to get its first hearing in the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

    Barry Smith is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.